USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 8
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
Isaac Johnnycake (sometimes written Jour- neyeake) was a brother of Chief Charles Johnny- cake. Isaac lived ten miles west of Wyandotte until the Delawares went to the Indian Territory in 1867. Ile, with twelve others, was employed in the forties by General John C. Fremont, the "Path- finder," to pilot a party of explorers over the Rocky mountains. They became great friends and later when the war broke out Johnnycake organized a company of Delaware braves and joined General Fremont. But when General Fremont was re- moved Johnnycake refused to fight under his sue- eessor and disbanded his company and they went
CHIEF CHIARLES JOURNEYCAKE. INDIAN PREACHER AND INTERPRETER home. Isaac Jolmnycake was assassinated in Indian Territory in 1885. Chief Charles Jolmnycake lived at the edge of the timber where the prairie begins about fifteen miles west of Wyandotte. His place was a station on the stage line between Wyandotte and Leavenworth in 1858. Lewis Ketchum, brother to Chief Ketchum, lived in Wyandotte county several years after the Delawares went to the Indian Territory.
THE DEATH OF CHIEF KETCHUM.
A pathetic incident of the Indian history of Wyandotte county was the death in August, 1857, of Captain John Ketchum, one of the most noted and best loved chiefs of the Delawares. It occurred only a few years before the departure of the Delawares from Kansas to the Indian Territory. The funeral was held at White Church, Wyandotte eounty, and the old settlers speak of it with reverenee. A great sorrow befell the Indians and the whites as well, for not only was Captain Ketchum a good and kind chief, but he was also a preacher and spiritual adviser, a wise connsellor. The Indians came in their colored blankets, with painted faces, carrying their guns and mounted on their horses and ponies. As the procession slowly followed the body of the dead ehief over the winding forest road to the burial place they seemed truly sor- rowful survivors of a once mighty tribe.
THE LAST OF A NOBLE RACE.
In singular contrast from the spectacular funeral in July, 1857, of the great Delaware chief, was a simple service at White Church in Jan- mary, 1911, for Mrs. Melinda Wilcoxen. Though of royal blood, a grandniece of Chief Ketchum, no brave warriors were there in paint and feathers and colored blankets to follow on their ponies the body as it was borne along the same road to the same old Indian burial ground not far from the site of the now vanished village of Secondine. Fifty-four years had wrought many changes, but not changed sorrow.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
Mrs. Wilcoxen was born on the Wyandotte county reservation in 1830, the year after the Delawares came to Kansas, and was nearly eighty-one years old. When the Delawares departed from Kansas in 1867 she was left behind. She was the wife of Rezin Wilcoxen, a white man, and clearly she saw that her duty was to remain with her husband. A few persons of Delaware Indian blood are yet living in Wyandotte county, but in the death of Mrs. Wilcoxen the last full blood is gone. Hers was one of the beautiful love romances of her people and her presence in White Church through all these years, kept alive the tales of folklore of the Delawares. And this is the story she told a little more than one year before she died; while she sat in her substantial old fashioned home on the Parallel road at White Church :
"I was born a few miles south of White Church, some time in 1830. I never knew the month or the day. My mother's name was Aquam-da-ge-ockwe. My father was killed during a hunt two months before my birth. When I was about ten years old the government agents started me in a school near where Stony Point now is. Father Stateler was the teacher, but I did not learn much English. In 1851 1 was married to Rezin Wilcoxsen, a West Virginian, who ran a store for the American Fur Company at Secondine, now called Muncie, Kansas. The Delawares were very much opposed to intermarrying with the whites, but my aunt and two of my cousins had married white men and my mother couldn't ob- ject much. The chief of the tribe, Captain Ketchum, was a brother of my grand- mother, Eche-lango-na-oekwe. Ilis Indian name was Tah-lee-a-ockwe, and sig- nified to 'grab them' or 'catch them' and the whites called him 'Ketchum.' I had no brothers or sisters, It had six half brothers, and three half sisters.
"I was happy with my white husband until a year or two after we were mar- ried, when the government moved the Delawares to the Indian Territory. All of my friends and loved ones went away then, and I was sad and cried many days. I wanted to go too, but I had to stay with my husband. Finally, however, I became contented and my husband used to send me on frequent visits to my people in the territory. We owned a farm near Secondine, but when the survey of lands of the Wyandot Indians was made, in 1866, it was found that we were on their land, and we moved north and settled in our present home in 1867.
"We built our home in the early '80s, and here we raised our children. We had five children. My husband died in 1890, and now all of my children are married, or dead, and I am left alone."
While Mrs. Wilcoxen spoke English fluently, she constantly de- plored the fact that no one is left who speaks her language. She did not teach her children Delaware, because she said she thought as all her people had moved away, they would have no use for it. For almost all of their lives Mrs. Wilcoxen and her cousin, Kate Grinter, a quarter- blood Delaware Indian who died three years ago, attended the South Methodist church at White Church. The Sunday school children used to stand around in interested groups and listen to them converse in their beautiful Delaware tongue. But after Kate was gone Mrs. Wileoxen had to croon to herself the accents of her 'dead' language. She used to go too into Kansas City, Kansas, to the home of Mrs. William Honeywell,
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
a widow living at 1925 Hallock street, and talk with her in the Delaware tongue. But Mrs. Honeywell became deaf and could no longer converse. "They are all gone," Mrs. Wilcoxen said, as she looked longingly at the setting sun. "I am sorry. I can say my thoughts so much better in my own Delaware, but maybe some day I'll see my baby again, and then we'll talk together of sunsets and rivers in our own language."
THE TREATY OF 1866.
By a treaty with the Delawares, dated June 4, 1866, the secretary of the interior was authorized to sell what then remained unsold of the Delaware lands in Wyandotte county to the Missouri Railroad Company, at not less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre. Accordingly, by the terms of the treaty, in order to vest every holder of the real estate with a title from the government, all the lands were deeded in trust to Alexander Colwell, and he gave a deed to each Indian holding an allot- ment under the treaty of 1860. The lands then remaining unsold and unocenpied were sold at two and one-half dollars per acre to the railroad syndicate, consisting of Tom Scott, of Pennsylvania; Thomas Price, Len T. Smith, Alex Colwell, Oliver A. Hart and others, to the number of thirteen. These lands then came into the market, and the settlement of that part of the county really began.
CHAPTER V.
THE OLD INDIAN MISSIONS.
THE SHAWNEE METHODIST MISSION -- WHERE THE LEGISLATURE MET -THE MISSION GRAVEYARD THE SHAWNEE BAPTIST MISSION-A NEWS- PAPER FOR THE INDIANS-A VISIT TO THE MISSIONS THIE SHAWNEE QUAKER MISSION -- SOCIAL LIFE ABOUT THE MISSIONS-DELAWARE METIIO- DIST MISSION-DELAWARE BAPTIST MISSION.
The greatest forces for the civilization of the Indians in Kansas were those Christian missionaries who, forsaking homes and friends and social ties, eame out into the Indian country to live among the red men and to labor for their spiritual and temporal welfare. In this great work Protestants and Catholics were engaged. The story of their hardships, privations and sacrifices forms one of the most fascinating chapters of the annals of Kansas. It has been eighty-two years since the first of these missionaries eame. There are to be seen, even to this day, many of the old landmarks and relies left behind to tell of these devout men and women who worked so well and faithfully, and the missions they es- tablished, but the monuments they builded were the imperishable records of their achievements in the eanse of religion and civilization. There were three of these old missions located among the Shawnees on the south side of the Kansas river almost on the line between Wyandotte and Johnson counties-Methodist, Baptist and Quaker-and until the time when the Indians left Kansas they had an important part in the early history of Kansas.
THE SHAWNEE METHODIST MISSION.
The Shawnee Indian mission was the most ambitious attempt of any Protestant church in the early times to care for the Indians of Kansas. In 1828 what was called the Fish band of Shawnee Indians was moved by the government from Ohio to Wyandotte county, Kansas. They were under the leadership of the Prophet, the brother of the great Tecumseh, who made his home near the spot where the town of Turner now stands. The following year the Reverend Thomas Johnson, a member of the Missouri conference of the Methodist church, followed the In- dians to Turner, built a log house on the hill south of the Kansas river
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
and began working among the red men as a missionary. In 1832 the rest of the Shawnee Indians from Ohio rejoined their tribe in Kansas. The government allotted them a large reservation of the best land in eastern Kansas.
The Reverend Thomas Johnson, in 1836, induced the general con- ference of his church to vote seventy-five thousand dollars to establish an Indian Manual Labor School, and the government at Washington granted 2,240 acres of the finest land for his Indian mission. The mis- sionary set to work at once to put up his buildings. There were no brick kils and no saw mills near at hand. All the lumber had to be shipped from Cincinnati, and all the bricks came from St. Louis. Four brick buildings were finished in 1839. The main building was thirty by one hundred and ten feet and was used as a chapel and school house. The second building contained more school rooms and some dormitories. In the third building lived the superintendent of the mission and the teachers of the school. The fourth building was used as a sehool.
The mission grew rapidly, for Mr. Johnson was a great manager. Log houses and shops went up all over the place. Blacksmith shops, a brick yard and a saw mill, a grist mill and trade shops were added to the mission. The Indian girls were taught trades. Indians crowded the school rooms and traders for California passed along the road. The mission was a busy and thriving place.
Thomas Johnson was a member of the Missouri Methodist confer- ence ; he sympathized with the south when the troubles over slavery arose, and gradually the mission became a gathering place for southern sympathizers. When the first territorial legislature met at Pawnee on July 2, 1855, at the order of Governor Reeder in a stone building erected for its use, it unseated the free state members, seated the pro-slavery men instead, and then passed a bill "to remove the capital temporarily to Shawnee Manual Labor School." It did this because the Shawnee mis- sion was well known as a center of pro-slavery sympathy.
WHERE THE LEGISLATURE MET.
The legislature met in the principal one of the Shawnee school build- ings. In this building the legislature passed laws so stringent that they called forth the hot indignation of the free state men. Governor Reeder informed the body that it had no right to be in session where it was, and that its acts were all illegal. The legislature paid little atten- tion to him, but continued to pass bills. It copied the laws of Missouri. except those that referred to slavery. One of the laws it passed was that a man who kidnapped a negro and sold him into slavery should be imprisoned for two years. On the other hand, it passed a law that a man who helped a negro escaped from slavery should be hanged. A man who refused to comply with the fugitive slave law should be dis-
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ILISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
franchised. The newspaper that spoke against slavery should be sup- pressed and its editor punished. Of course, these laws were not legally enforced. The questionable procedure of the legislature gave it the nick- name of the "bogus" legislature, and it is still known under that title. The Reverend Thomas Johnson was an advocate of the passage of these laws. He was president of the conneil, which was the upper house of the legislature.
The old building with the white posts on the north side of the road has been entirely remodeled inside, and the room where the "bogus" legislature met no longer exists. But the outward appearance of the place remains the same. In front of it is one of the most picturesque, old fashioned yards to be found in the state. The trees, the shrubbery and the shape of the yard are all old fashioned. It is not well kept, but there is something about it very quaint and sweet. Up from the gate to the wide porch that runs along the entire side of the building is a walk made of stone słabs. It is there still, though the thousands of feet that have trod its stones have worn down the sharp points. It was laid when the house was built. Many moccasined feet, and many feet shod with boots and shoes, and some unshod, have passed over it in the seventy-five years of its existence.
When the war troubles made a visitation in the Methodist church and the Missouri conference was compelled to abandon the Shawnee mis- sion, it found that, although the government had granted the land to the church, the title had somehow been made out in the Reverend Mr. John- son's name. So Mr. Johnson possessed himself of all the mission grounds and divided it among his children before his death. He was shot in 1865 by bushwhackers-wantonly shot down at his front door. 1Jis body was buried in the old mission cemetery at the top of the hill southeast of the mission building. You may find the place by the clump of evergreens and other trees that mark it.
THE MISSION GRAVEYARD.
It stands on the top of the hill. Inelosed in a stone wall which Joseph Wornall and Alexander Johnson put up about eighteen years ago are the graves of the Reverend Thomas Johnson, his wife, brother and seven children, and members of the Wornall family. Outside the wall are other graves, some marked and some unmarked. Many of the stone and marble slabs that once marked the graves have toppled over and are being fast buried beneath the soil. Among the graves ontside the wall is that of Mrs. J. C. Berryman, whose husband was superin- tendent of the mission in 1843.
Among the graves the one of Thomas Johnson is the most conspic- nons. It is marked by a marble shaft which was put up by the family shortly after the war and which bears this inscription : Vol. I-4
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
REVEREND THOMAS JOHNSON. The Devoted Indian Missionary, Born, July 11, 1802. Died, January 2, 1865. He built his own monument, which shall stand in peerless beauty long after this marble has crumbled into dust, a monument of good works.
THE SHAWNEE BAPTIST MISSION.
The Reverend Jotham Meeker, designated by the Indians as "He that Speaketh Good Words,' after working among the Ottawas and Chippewas in Michigan, came out in 1833 and founded the first Baptist mission among the Shawnees. Ile brought with him a printing outfit for the printing of hymns in the language of the Indians. The old "Baptist Mission Press" became famous, as from it was issued the first newspaper in Kansas. Mr. Meeker, having started the mission work, was relieved in 1837 by the Reverend John G. Pratt, who was sent by the American Foreign Missionary Society. Mr. Meeker then pushed his way farther out into the wilderness and established a Baptist mission near Ottawa. There he spent the remainder of his life in this noble eause, dying in 1854.
Associated with Mr. Pratt in the mission was Dr. Johnston Lykins, who was superintendent of the mission. The two labored together for the religious and spiritual uplift of the Indians. The mission was lo- cated a few miles south of the Kansas river from the Missouri line. An alphabet was invented, and a number of elementary books were writ- ten and published for the Shawnee and other tribes. Mr. Pratt had charge of the printing press, and not only published books of his own, but also for other missions.
A NEWSPAPER FOR THE INDIANS.
It was during the administration of Mr. Pratt that the Siwinowe Kesibiri, or Shawnee Light or Sun, made its first appearance. Un- doubtedly it was the first newspaper to be printed in Kansas. A copy of the paper is in the possession of E. F. Heisler, editor of the Weekly Sun of Kansas City, Kansas. It was given him by Chief Blue Jacket, who found it between the leaves of a Bible in the hut of an Indian who died in 1897 in Oklahoma. The title page reads as follows:
SIWINOWE KESIBWI. Palako Wahostata Nakote Kesibo-Wiselibi-1841. J. Lykins, editor, November, 1841. Baptist Mission Press.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
On one side of this old paper is the autograph of Charles Blue Jacket in pencil. On the other side is that of Electa Abrims, onee a servant girl for Major John G. Pratt. The paper is about eight by ten inches, printed on both sides. A paragraph reads : "Siewinoweakwa Nekinat a Sa kimekipahe eawibokeace kekesibomwi owanoke neketasbi- tołapso kwakwekeophe Keakowasełapwopwi nawakwa noke wibanawakwa Skite ketałatimo lapwi howase lisimimowa cheno manwe laniwawewa eisiwekeati."
Mr. Pratt was called to other missionary work in 1844 and was succeeded by Dr. Francis Barker, a missionary who, with his wife, eame ont from the east. The Barkers were in charge of the mission for many vears and their teaching made deep impressions on the minds of the Indians.
A VISIT TO THE MISSIONS.
In her book, "Kansas Interior and Exterior Life," Sarah T. D. Robinson tells of a visit, in 1855, to the Shawnee Baptist Mission while Dr. Francis Barker and his wife were conducting it. She says: "The mission is situated abont a quarter of a mile from the great California road, four miles west from Westport, and about two from Reverend Thomas Johnson's Methodist Mission. After the road turns from the California road, it descends slightly, and for an eighth of a mile is skirted with timber upon either side.
"We found Dr. Barker's family most hospitable and pleasant, and appreciated thankfully the prospect of a quiet resting place for a few weeks after this long, wearisome journey. Ilow cheerful the fire beamed a welcome, and how genial its heat after such a chilly ride! The great logs were rolled into the huge fireplace, and burned and eraekled until every corner of the room was as light as day. Supper being over, we were soon in dreamland ; friends we had left were around us ; the 'loved and lost' were near.
"One glance at the room was sufficient to show that our host was not born in this western land. Books, pamphlets, pictures, vases, etc., were on all the tables, walls, and everywhere. Sixteen years ago they came to the west ; and Dr. Barker has worked indefatigably for the best good of the Shawnees. As minister, teacher and physician, he has labored for them : physical as well as spiritual good, through summer's heat and winter's cold, by day and night with unceasing effort."
Of Dr. Barker and his work James Little, in a little volume, "What I Saw on the Old Santa Fe Trail." wrote: "Dr. Barker, the superin- tendent of the Baptist mission, was perhaps the first or earliest mission- ary in Kansas. He told me he had been there nearly forty years. The Mission house stood in a dense forest of timber. When it was built the Doctor said it stood on the open prairie. The timber had grown
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
up after that. The Doctor took a great interest in teaching the Indians music. He said all Indians had a talent for music. I attended preach- ing several times there. An Indian interpreter stood by the Doctor's side. He was Cor-mop-pee. Barker would speak a sentence in English and Cor-mop-pee would repeat the same in Shawnee for the benefit of the old Indians who could not understand English. Doctor Barker translated a collection of old familiar hymns such as 'When I Can Read My Title Clear' and 'Amazing Grace.' They were arranged so the hymn on the left was in English and on the opposite page the hymn was in Shawnee Indian."
THE SHAWNEE QUAKER MISSION.
The friends, or Quakers, were the friends of the Indians. When the Ohio branch of Shawnees eame to Kansas in 1832 the Quakers obtained permission from the government and sent a deputation to visit them at their new homes. By the report of that deputation it appears the Shaw- nees were located in a rich and healthy country, and well pleased with their change. The Indians received the deputation with gladness, man- ifesting gratitude for former labors to ameliorate their condition.
In 1834 a donation of three hundred pounds was received from Friends of London yearly meeting, for the Christian instruction and civilization of the Shawnee Indians. The donation was accompanied by a communication expressing much sympathy with Friends in their good work, and a desire that a "meeting for worship might be estab- lished."
In 1835 the committees of the Maryland, Ohio and Indiana yearly meetings, met at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and revised the "plan of opera- tions for the Christian institution and civilization of the Shawnee In- dians," which, being submitted to the secretary of war, was approved. A deputation was then sent to visit the Indians, to submit the plan to them, for approval. During the year 1836 the committees were engaged in erecting the necessary buildings and opening a farm. In 1837 superintendents were employed, a school was opened and a meeting for worship was established. The superintendents were directed to have portions of the Holy Scripture read daily in the school and in the family, and to take particular eare to instruet the Indian children in the doc- trines and precepts of the Gospel.
A report of the work of the mission says: "From this time the com- mittee continued to labor among them with pretty good success for several years, the school numbering from fifteen to forty scholars, who were boarded, lodged and elothed at the expense of Friends. During this period many of the Indians built comfortable houses, opened farms and prepared to enjoy the comforts of civilized life. A considerable number of the Indians were brought under conviction, and embraced the
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
doctrines of the Gospel, but no provision having been made by our yearly meeting for their reception into membership with Friends they united themselves with the Baptist and Methodist churches. Some of the Shawnees, however, continued to attend Friend's meeting, and in 1852 an Indian by the name of Kako ("a" as in "far"), not feeling at liberty to join either of these societies, made application to the committee and was finally received into membership by Friends of Miami monthly meeting (Ohio), and during the remainder of his life his conduct and conversation were circumspect and exemplary. The closing scene of his life was rather remarkable. Ile had a large number of Indians col- lected, and was enabled to address them in a very feeling and impressive manner. His death was triumphant, exhibiting in a striking manner the power of faith."
SOCIAL LIFE ABOUT THE MISSIONS.
Eli Thayer was superintendent of the Quaker Mission in the early fifties. He had come ont from Miami county, Ohio, bringing his wife and two children, a son and a danghter. Eli was an invalid and was seldom out of the house. Mrs. Thayer was an excellent Quaker woman and she was a mother to the Indian children. Elizabeth, the daughter, a handsome young woman, reflected much sunshine about the Mission and the Indian girls all loved her for her kindness and goodness of heart. The boy, James, twelve years old, was a favorite with the Indians. The teacher was Richard Mendenhall, who had come from Plainfield, Indiana, with his wife, Sarah Ann, a plain, motherly Quaker woman, and their son Charles, who was ten years old and said "thee" and "thou." Cyrus Rogers, also from Plainfield, was the Mission farmer.
One fine Sunday afternoon while James Little of Indiana was visit- ing at the mission after his trip across the plains, a party was made up for a visit to the Chonteans. The party included Rogers, Little, Elizabeth Thayer and four of the Indian girls. This story of the trip is told by Little: "The Chonteaus lived about two miles to the west. There were three brothers, all married to squaws. They were intelli- gent Frenehmen and owned slaves when Kansas was a territory. The girls were walking in a group a little ahead of us. Cyrus said : 'Jim, I will walk with Elizabeth and you walk with one of the Indian girls.' "So I sprang forward and overtook them and offered my services to Mahala, as she was the most civilized one of them. It was a great surprise to her. She suddenly bucked, then I halted; then she pitched forward, and I ran and caught up; then she would dodge back and forth, and finally retreated back to the mission. I discovered I was not popular with the Indian girls. They never seemed to like me. The meanest thing they could say was to call me a white man. They thought the Quakers were a different tribe. I did not use the plain language.
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